EXPLORING HIDDEN GEMS __ Blue Mountains Camping Adventure.

Man, I'm actually loving these tree ferns, eh? Getting a very Jurassic Park feeling here. Oh, this place is so bloody cool. Well, g'day guys. Thanks again for joining me on the video. Hope you guys are all doing well. So, back out in the beautiful Blue Mountains on the border of Radjuri and Dharug country. And man, it is such a gorgeous spring day. Oh, it's not a cloud in the sky. It's probably about 15 degrees at the moment and just that beautiful, crisp mountain there. It's just a really beautiful day to be out going for a bushwalk. So, the plan is, I've just parked up the car and there's a track behind me that goes to a dry slot canyon because it's still pretty fresh at the moment. So, I'm just trying to avoid some of the wet canyons around the area, but this one's a dry one. So, it should be a really nice bushwalk through it. Then after that, we'll jump back in the car and we'll head back up this dirt road. And then it's meant to be a really nice lookout looking at this beautiful gorge. So, I'll sort of hike down and we'll try and find a nice place to set up camp looking at this gorge. So, I think it's going to be a really nice weekend. So, if you guys stick around for it, I'll chuck the daypack on now and we'll go check out this slot canyon. Well, much like the rest of the Blue Mountains, this place got pretty hammered in the fires back in the 2019, 2020 fires. As you can see, all the trees have lost all the canopy, which is a shame. Although there's a lot of epicormic growth on the side of the trees, which is good. So, hopefully the trees bounce back in the next couple of years, but yeah, definitely losing that canopy isn't a good thing for the tree. But there's lots of regrowth, like all these saplings are trying to race up to be the first tree to establish itself. Lots of wattles, lots of eucalypts. So, there definitely is a lot of greenery around and it makes off-track walking a bit of a nightmare when it's this thick in the new saplings, but it's a good thing to see, though. So, for those of you guys who are unfamiliar with this area, all these little rocky outcrops you keep seeing, these are called pagodas and that's what the area is renowned for. This whole plateau is just covered in sort of rocky pagodas and that's why it gets its nickname, the Garden of Stone. Quite often through, like amongst all the rocky pagodas are these little slot canyons or sort of caves tucked amongst them and it just makes for a really interesting bushwalk and it definitely feels like walking through a garden of stone. It's really cool. It's definitely one of my favorite places to go for a wander, eh? I really like it. All right, well I think I'm at the start of the slot canyon now. All these pagodas are starting to get pretty close together. I think I've got to make my way down through there. All right, we've just come out of that first little constriction which was so damn cool. We've just come to this little amphitheater where it's a bit more open. Bunch of trees around. I think just around the corner it's going to go into a second constriction which is meant to be even better, I think. Let's go check it out. Man, I'm absolutely loving these tree ferns, eh? I'm getting a very Jurassic Park feeling here. Almost like expect like a velociraptor just to run through. Oh, this place is so body cool. Man, this is insane. It's almost pitch black in here. This is a bright, sunny day. Imagine trying to do this in an overcast weather. You wouldn't be able to see anything. Oh man, this is absolutely crazy. One of the coolest places I've been. Loving this, eh? What a good day. All right, well that brings us to the end of this canyon. You can see just behind me, this is the edge of the cliff and just over there is the Walgoon Valley. So yeah, very body cool. I absolutely loved that day. Oh, that was really nice. I might, it's about getting close to one o'clock now so I might sit down and have some lunch quickly and then we'll make our way back and then we'll go over to get a look out to the gorge that I'm planning to sleep at tonight, so yeah. All right, well, the car's parked up. Let's go down this trail. It's not very far. It's only probably a couple of hundred metres or so until the lookout. We'll try and find a nice place to set up camp. Well, this is a pretty sweet spot. It's a nice big pagoda behind me. It's nice and flat and relatively clear. I've seen someone's canteen before. Got an old fire pit there. So yeah, not a bad spot. The gorge is just down that way so I can just climb to the top of this pagoda and get a pretty nice view, so not a bad option. Might just go for a little bit of a walk around, see if I can find anything better. But if not, I think it's one line too. Not bad, not bad at all. Such a cool and unique landscape, hey? Very rugged and very wild. Well, that is one hell of a view. Not bad at all. Really nice time of day too. All that sunlight just light up those rock walls. Really nice. All right, well, trying to figure out where to set up camp. Right behind me, or what I'm standing on actually, I'll stand over here so you can see it. So this is a big flat area. We're really keen to camp here, hey? It's such a good spot, like, you know, sort of wake up to that view in the morning, it'd be pretty awesome. Though there is a little bit of a slight breeze. Not super strong, but because this is a gorge, it's sort of acting as a bit of a wind tunnel. So it's not ideal. So I'm not quite sure, to be honest. I'm going to have a think about it. Obviously, I want to have a fire to cook up dinner, but I don't want to be dangerous about it either, so. I can sort of have the fire here and have it against this little rock wall, and I don't think, I'll just keep it small. I don't think I have too much of an issue, but anyway, I'm going to have a bit of a think about it, see whether I want to stay here or might go back to where that big pagoda is. All right, well, it's about five o'clock, so you know what that means? Gin and tonic time. We're going to go down to the cliff and get a take in the sunset. ♪♪♪ Look at the landscape. Let me think of worse places to enjoy a nice drink. I mean, I bloody love the Australian landscape, particularly this sandstone country. You just can't beat it, though. So bloody prehistoric. You can honestly imagine, like, dinosaurs running around here. Oh, such a special place, though. One of the scary things is this is actually state forest land, so they do a lot of coal mining in this area. Just the thought that you could lose this place to a mine or just get damaged in any way is honestly a very scary thought. Such a beautiful, unique landscape that definitely needs to be preserved for many years to come. I think there's proposals to maybe turn this into a national park. I think I've read, so hopefully they do, because just the thought that you could lose this to a mine or whatever it is, it's just, yeah, very worrying. So hopefully they hurry up with that and turn it into a national park soon. Really an incredible place. I'm surprised I actually haven't come here before. That's the beauty about this area. There's just so many nooks and crannies to explore. Like, honestly, I could spend the rest of my life exploring this place and I'll just go to somewhere new every single time. But, anyway, that's enough of me chit-wagging. Have I finished off my drink, enjoy the view, and I'll get back to you guys when I get the flight going. All right, so for dinner tonight, I'm gonna make, like, a steak sandwich. But rather than using beef, I've actually got thin kangaroo steak here. So I'm just gonna, yeah, fry that up. I've got some sourdough bread here. I've got some rocket lettuce, some onion, tomato, parmesan cheese, garlic aioli, and olive oil. So, first course of action is we'll get the onion on. And just some asparagus pantry. I'm just gonna get out some brown sugar just to caramelise up that onion a bit more. All right, now we'll chuck in the kangaroo. Now, they're only really thin, so, honestly, shouldn't take any more than one or two minutes each side. It'll be a little bit longer, actually. Now, the good thing about kangaroo meat is it's nice, lean meat, and also it's a very sustainable meat as well because, you know, all kangaroo is wild harvested, so it's not farmed. So it's, yeah, really good for the environment. Probably about done. I've just got some parmesan cheese here. Just gonna make, like, a little parmesan cheese crisp. All right, so I've just got my piece of sourdough bread. Just gonna put some garlic aioli on it. All right, I'm just gonna put some more cheese down. This is just a tasty old cheddar cheese this time. So that way, that can melt all through it. And I've also got my parmesan cheese crisps as well to go on top. All right, now we add the onion, the kangaroo steaks. Oh, that's a fair bit. And just some tomato. Lastly, just that parmesan cheese crisp. Lastly, we just top it off with a bit of sourdough, and we'll chuck that in the coals and try and toast that up. And lastly, we'll just put some rocket lettuce on. And there you have it, a nice little kangaroo steak toasty. It's pretty damn good. Mmm. Yum. It's actually really nice, eh? I've never used a kangaroo steak to make a toasty before, and it actually works really well. Very tasty. Well, today has been a good day. I've really enjoyed today. It's been really fun, so... Very keen now to sit back and watch a bit of the bush telly, call myself another gin and tonic, and, you know, just relax. So, anyway, I'll see you guys in the morning. Well, good morning, guys. Not a bad place to wake up to, eh? It's a nice way to start the morning. So I had a little bit of rain last night. I woke up about 12 o'clock, and it was raining a little bit, but not too heavy, so not too much to worry about. But it did have a bit of a frustrating night. I sort of woke up about two or three times to a deflated mat. So I've found, yeah, my nemo tensor, it's just been deflating over the last couple of months, and, yeah, really frustrating, cos I wake up in the middle of the night just pretty much laying on the ground, so I have to blow it back up, which is, yeah, not ideal. So I might have to take a look at that when I get home. Not sure if it's a faulty one, I don't think there's a hole in it. I'm pretty sure it's coming out of the valve, so I'll have to take a look at it. Anyway, if you guys have a nemo tensor, you guys have the same issue, let me know, cos one of it's something I should be hitting up Nemo about. But I had a really nice night last night, eh? After I flipped the camera off, just sat around the bush telly with a gin and tonic and some musket, the almost full moon was out as well, so it sort of lit up the landscape really nicely, and, yeah, just had some tunes going, and, yeah, put my boogie on around the fire, which is always interesting. But, yeah, it was a really nice night. I honestly find, like, some of my best times out here is after I turn the camera off, and I'm just sitting around the fire, just having a drink and just, yeah, listening to music, and I get very much deep into my thoughts, and, yeah, it's really nice. It's like one of the things I love about just being out here is just sitting around a campfire, especially under a full moon, all the stars. This can't be today. I listen to some hiking podcasts, and a few of the blokes... Sorry. A few of the blokes on the podcast talk about how as soon as they get to camp, as soon as it gets dark, they eat dinner and go straight to bed, and I feel like they're missing out on so much, eh? Like, there's nothing better than sitting around a campfire, yeah, out in the bush after a day's hiking and it's just a very special part about being out camping, so I don't know. Each to their own. Some people obviously don't really care too much, but for me, it's a big part of camping is just sitting around that bush deli. Anyway, it's about 8.30 now, so I think I might pack camp down soon, and I might start making my way back, but there are a few caves I could see in the drone footage at the end of this creek, so I might try and make my way over and see if I can get a good vantage point of them. I'm not sure if I'll be able to access them because it's quite difficult terrain up there, I'm pretty sure, but we'll go over and we'll see if we can have a look at them. Alright, so just a little shameless plug, so I've now got affiliate links to all the gear that I use, and basically what that is, if you use the link to purchase an item, I basically just get a few bucks in the sale, so it's at no extra cost to you guys, but it's a good way to sort of help out the channel, so if you guys want to use those affiliate links, they'll be in the description below. And bloody hell, this little section has so many caves. Looks like that cave is massive. That would have to be, I don't know, 50 meters tall? There's another massive one just down there behind this big tree, which you can't really see. There's also a waterfall just there. You've got this creek that comes around the back here. Another massive cave. Another big cave. Oh, this is a really cool spot. I'd love to go down and explore it all, but I don't think I have enough time, eh? Okay, I might have to save this for next time. I could easily spend a whole day just looking around this area. It's very cool. And it looks like there's a potential for a little camping cave down there. Looks like it's a nice, flat, sandy bottom. I'll have to try and check that out next time. You know what? Curiosity has got the better of me. I found a relatively easy way to get down, so let's go down and have a look at that little camping cave. Just came down there. It's already looking promising. It's a nice little cave there, but the one I want to check out is just around the corner. That's a really nice little cave. It's a good size, eh? Definitely have to remember that one for the future. Well, this is a very cool little area. Got a nice waterfall. Got the massive caves up there. Caves all over there. And the camping cave just up there. So, I think I'm definitely going to have to come back to this place. I could explore it now, but it's getting close to lunchtime, and I've got a bit of a drive to get home. And I honestly don't want to rush this, eh? I feel like I could make a whole video just in this area. So, let's leave it for next time, and we'll start making our way back up. All right, guys. Well, that is another trip done and dusted. Man, I've had so much fun on this trip, eh? It's been really good. Almost feels like two completely different trips, eh? Exploring that canyon yesterday was bloody epic, and then camping in this prehistoric landscape, man, can't get much better than that. It's been a really fun time. So, I hope you guys enjoyed this one as well. If you guys haven't subscribed, please do. Help me crack the 100k by the end of the year. And also, I've had a bunch of guys sign up to my Patreon over the last month or two, so I wanted to give a big shout-out to you guys, because, yeah, it's with your support that helps me to get out here and make more of these videos for you guys. So, if you guys would like to support the channel, there's a Patreon link in the description below, and, yeah, every little bit helps. So, on that note, let's wrap this one up, and I'll see you guys in the next one. Hoo-roo!